Today I set out on a little adventure with a friend to a few different areas along the New Hamsphire / Massachusettes seacoast. We stopped in a few different spots seeing everything from seals to a buffalo (yes, really, a buffalo), to hundreds of dried flowers hanging from a ceiling and miles upon miles of beautiful seashore. I captured many photos, but the one that really caught my eye was this one. We were out on Plum Island in an area that is part of a Reserve and closed off to general tourists for the winter months. Yes, let’s take me out of the “general tourist” bunch for now. 😉 The sand was PURPLE! Yes, take a look. I was told it’s from the mussels. Whatever it is, it’s pretty cool!

My students have been doing studies of beach sand. Looking at the purple under a microscope you can see that the purple are mineral crystals and not mussel seashell. We believe the purple is from garnets.

I love this photo and study purple sand beaches. There are some amazingly beautiful ones near Big Sur in California. I have a question for you–do you remember where in the reserve you got out of the car and saw this stretch of purple sand?